I am by profession a Geo-Scientist and work in the Oil & Gas Exploration & Production industry. Although many people in my line of business enjoy the high remuneration packages but there is major twist to the industry that most of us are often posted to new locations. My gypsy life seems to spring every couple of years and the time has come for me to move to from Miri to Kuala Lumpur.
One challenge with house moves for the DIY'er always is taking along his prized home workshop tools and equipment. While some may suggest to sell off and buy new stuff in the new location, but most of my stuff is a collection of several years worth of internet searches and purchases for the the current collection many of us DIY'ers have. In fact I think almost half the cost of my collection is the overseas shipping that has to be paid to obtain these tools.
I must add that moving every so often does have its limitations, sometimes you live in an apartment, sometimes in a house, some home owners are very particular about the changes you make to their homes (such as hanging peg boards etc), and then there is this issue of whether you are moving to a foreign country and do these tools still classify as household items. So my choice of tools or equipment has to be very portable. I cannot imagine ever owning a bridge port mill in my life time simply because of its size and dimensions.
I have decided to put a stop to my DIY activities for the next few months as I will be on the move soon and will probably have to setup up again in my next destination. So after some cleaning up of my current home DIY shop, I decided to post how I had it setup here in Miri for the last 2 years.
So to start with, I had to setup my DIY shop in the store room of the house. I did not have the luxury to setup and proper work bench or tool racks as in the back of my mind I probably will never call any place home and will be moving soon. I cant even mount a vise or bolt the mill/lathe to a bench.
All in all its about working with the constraints and basically my only choice is to take a tool out, use it, clean it and store it back.
In this post I will be giving a quick walk through my DIY shop or should I call it a DIY store room. I am not able to walk you through the thousand or so individual items but I am sure you will be able to see some interesting stuff.
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| A view of the small store room converted to my DIY shop |
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| The mill, lathe and 3d printer with dust covers placed on a TV display unit the house had available |
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| The mill, lathe and 3d printer with dust covers removed |
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| My Sieg SX2P Mini Mill Machine |
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| Accessories & Tooling for the Sieg SX2P Mill stored in the drawer below. |
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| My Sieg SC2 Mini Lathe |
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| Accessories & Tooling for the Sieg SC2 Lathe stored in the drawer below |
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| One of the drawers holding various measurement and layout tools |
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| My DIY Prusa i3 Reprap Printer |
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| A drawer below the 3d printer where I stored the Granite Surface Plate and some instruction manuals |
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| A white board to make quick notes or instructions |
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| An over head cupboard showing a LED Mill/Lathe work light and drill machine drill press stand |
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| Various electronics & stationary items stored in the overhead cupboard |
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| A domestic grade vacuum cleaner to keep the DY shop clean from swarf, chips and debris |
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| My Waytrain UE-100S Bandsaw which is 4x6 inch model. I do not even have a proper place to mount it and only take it out when I need to do some quick metal cuts. |
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| In this corner, we have some typical motorcycle stands, a fan, dehumidifier, a work bench, shop stool etc |
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| Fresh aluminium, brass and delrin blanks and some salvaged material from previous projects |
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| Salvaged electrical items stored in a mini cupboard |
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| A spare cupboard the house had that used to store various things |
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| A section where have an incomplete DIY CNC machine (a project that will be going to the back burner for now) and a belt sander |
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| A section of the cupboard storing various lubricants, greases, oils and motorcycle spare parts |
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| A section for storing various hand tools |
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| A section for storing various hand tools and abrasives etc |
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| A section for power tools and some other miscellaneous items |
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| A section storing various tools and lubricants for rough use |
I hope you enjoyed the quick walk over.
Cheers!!
Very nice tools you have here. I have a woodworking shop in my store room and looking for drill press. But i'm thinking of instead of drill press, mill machine could do the same job and more. May i know how much you pay for the mini mill?
ReplyDeleteI bought the mill directly from a seller on AliExpress. I made a combined deal for the mill, lathe and shipping included for almost RM 7000. You cant get this shipped directly via courier and requires sea freight which many sellers avoid. But this was long ago, and i have seen a few local online websites that now offer the Mini Mill in Malaysia for under RM 5000. As a Drill Press the Mini Mill lacks the required Z axis height compared to a drill press and the mini mill will cost much more than a drill press.
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